Tuesday, July 03, 2007

A round-up of the past week

My final Secret Pal 10 parcel arrived safely with Melanie so I can now reveal my secret knitting - the Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style (kindly given to me by my lovely upstream secret pal, Sabine - there is a nice symmetry there). Here is Ellen modelling it before it went off to Canada:

On the current knitting front I am stranded on the sleeve island of Beau, but am nearly finished (hope to finish them tonight) and then it is on to the front. Time is critical here, though - it is James' birthday on Friday 13th - will I make it?! And I am making slow progress with Clementine - which has the same deadline!

I am trying hard not to get distracted with other projects and have been pretty faithful to these two for the time being as I really want to get them finished on time.

On a more sober note, I am a bit freaked out by the recent terrorist activity in the UK, having had a close shave with the Docklands IRA bomb in 1996. This is what was left of my office (I was inside the building at the time of the explosion and escaped just with cuts caused by flying glass, which, looking at the building, I find incredible):

Today, I hear there was a controlled explosion at Hammersmith (where I work two days a week) and on Friday I am heading into town to work, which I am anxious about to say the least. I know that people commute into town every day but I am still worried about it, and am not a believer in the saying that lightning doesn't strike twice. While I appreciate that things here are not nearly as bad as elsewhere in the world, the threat of the unexpected strike frightens me.

On a less gloomy note, I managed a trip to John Lewis in Kingston this week and checked out the yarn sale. I couldn't resist the Debbie Bliss Cathay - hugely reduced, and such lovely colours:

And in between the showers, we had sports day at school. Lily did really well, coming third in the sprint race (red sticker) and second in the distance (blue sticker) - I am so proud of her!

3 Comments:

I know you mentioned the bombing in your "facts" post, but seeing the building, my gosh! I am so happy that you escaped with minor injuries!!! I can imagine how scary it is with all the terrorist activity going on! Your shawl is just lovely, and it looks like you had a great SP10 experience!

Hello! I just found your blog through Dolliedaydream and was wondering where you came from - at the start of the post I thought - Ellen looks like she is wearing a typical UK school summer dress and hey ho - you're in London!! I had a pink and white checked dress from M&S when I was at primary school almost 30 years ago!!